I attended a public hearing as a field trip at the Florida State board of nursing. One case - I saw was of this large, robust male LPN who has a psych disorder - bipolar i assume. He was working as a nurse and got off of his shift at night from some rehab facility, and randomly picked a woman driving her car to stalk and attack. He opened her car door when she got home, beat her up, put her in the car, drove her to his house as a kidnapping case and thank god somebody saw him and a civilian attacked the nurse to defend the woman until cops came. He had his license suspended.
At the hearing he told them he was off of his medication, and didn't mean to do it....and the board allowed him to keep his nursing license under the stipulation that he be monitored for taking his medication.
I wanted your feelings on this matter, because me personally..I was upset by the ruling. I cant see this man as my families nurse with such violent tendencies...but maybe I'm being biased.
I'm not defending his actions, I am simply trying to look at it from another perspective, the OP doesn't give us a lot of information, does the patient have a history of violent outbreaks? Did the victim provoke him? Has he been proven in a court of law? It sounds to me like there are two victims in this case. If this man has children and this is his only income, taking away his license would also take the food out of his children's mouths.
Specializes in telemetry, med-surg, home health, psych.
I'm not defending his actions, I am simply trying to look at it from another perspective, the OP doesn't give us a lot of information, does the patient have a history of violent outbreaks? Did the victim provoke him? Has he been proven in a court of law? It sounds to me like there are two victims in this case. If this man has children and this is his only income, taking away his license would also take the food out of his children's mouths.
did the victim provoke him?? Are you serious??? He stalked, kidnapped and beat up a woman !!!!! If he does have children, they would be better off without him being their caregiver !! He deserves punishment for his behavior not sympathy....
As nurses we are in a position of trust with our patients and I do not know if I could trust someone that could beat up another human being. I do not know the whole story, but from what was posted I would not let this person take care of myself or a loved one. Who is to say that the next victim is not going to be one of his defenseless patients?
I don't see how we can compare this random "violent" behavior to AIDS or HEP C.....
I have so many "frequent flyer" pts. on my psych unit that do not stay on their meds, then must return for more tx. I do not believe we can blame this type of behavior on "not taking meds".......
This was an extremely violent, pre-meditated act...I don't care what dx. he comes up with....he needs to be in jail.........
I have seen many psych patients that either are no longer taking their medication, or are in need of dosage adjustment come in violently and out of control, they are a danger to others and to themselves without their medication, but when are currently on meds, then they are fine. Let's not forget, there are a lot of people that each of us knows, that take anti-depressents. They have at times contemplated taking their own lives. Would you want them stripped of their nursing license because they may have attempted to commit suicide, they could potentially be considered a danger to others as well, if they are willing to take their own lives, what's to stop them from taking someone elses. Point is, it doesn't matter what your lot in life is, we are all capable of hurting others and ourselves. We can't condemn people for life.
Considering that we are part of a civilization that has killed over 100 million of its own in the last century alone, I believe we must begin to look beyond the individual situations such as this one you write of and begin to think about why is our civilization so insane? More so, what is the way out of the insanity that we, as human beings, are all capable of?
I don't really feel strongly one way or another about this case. I do think it is interesting that the reaction to this seems to be the exact opposite of the reaction to the "Should addicted nurses be allowed to practice?" thread. When it comes right down to it, it is the same issue, a nurse with a mental illness who relapsed.
I do think it is interesting that the reaction to this seems to be the exact opposite of the reaction to the "Should addicted nurses be allowed to practice?" thread. When it comes right down to it, it is the same issue, a nurse with a mental illness who relapsed.
Well said, ThatPoshGirl. Those were my thoughts exactly.
rnmomtobe2010
1,051 Posts
hmmm. how disturbing!!!